Final Post of 2012

 I thought I would end the year with some images of some Cryx models I painted and sold.  They were posted before on a previous blog. (bonus points if you find my old blog)  Sadly, I had a huge fully painted Cryx army, but I ended up selling them off before I could take pictures of it all.  Here are what few pictures I do have...

Terminus... undefeated at the 35 point level.  Bane of my LGS!

SPOILER FREE Book Review: Ghouls of the Miskatonic

Ghouls of the Miskatonic

Graham McNeill

From the back of the book:

It is the roaring twenties, and strange things are happening in the small Massachusetts town of Arkham.  When mutilated bodies are found on the grounds of Miskatonic University, is it the work of a serial killer, or something much darker?  While a professor seeks his own answers, nightmarish premonitions plague his most gifted student.  Meanwhile, a reporter trawls the town's dark underbelly for clues, and a bootlegger stumbles upon a strange, otherworldly device.  Now, these unlikely investigators must unite to seek answers to a mystery that threatens all they hold dear.

The Review:

Ironically, when I purchase a book online, I try to avoid reading the reviews there.  Not only because they may contain spoilers, but also I find that some people may seem unusually harsh, or have some weird expectations when they read a book like this.  They are entertaining reads, not thesis worthy masterpieces!  That said, I did accidently glance at the reviews, and I'm really afraid it may have influenced my views before I even read the book.  Aside from that, I went into the book asking myself these basic questions:

1) Does it feel like Lovecraft?

2) Would a read the next book?

I'm familiar with Graham McNeill from his Warhammer 40k novels, and as one of their "main writers", I may have had some prior expectations.  So, how did Ghouls of the Miskatonic stack up?

This Geek's Week...

I... literally... did... NOTHING gaming wise this week.

That said, I did work a little bit on my Man Cave/Nerd Lair.  I got a new cabinet for the Nerd Lair, which now holds all my movies, as well as my board games.  I also picked up several Bossk statues for the room as well.  I also got a new lounger for playing video games coming soon too.  I'll eventually post pictures once everything arrives...

Emperor Edition: Gempukku

I was lucky enough to receive the "Holiday Box" for L5R, and in it was 5 boosters for the soon to be released EE: Gempukku set, and... it... is... AWESOME!  If you are like me, then you always find that you are missing certain cards to get your deck running smoothly.  Sure, you can buy pack after pack and cross your fingers, or go hunting for rares online, but that adds up fast as well! (Not to mention when most online places are out of the cards you need, or only have 1 left instead of the 2-3 you need)  Well, this set may just have you covered!  (As well as it may have the side effect of possibly lowering secondary market prices)

In a nutshell, the set will have boosters and "toolbox" style starters.  The starters will contain a bunch of commons and uncommons for their respective clans from all through the Emperor arc, as well as 2 exclusive cards, and 3 EE:Gempukku boosters. (Fingers crossed that the Scorpion one will have guys like Bayushi Suwabe in it)  I don't have a firm MSRP, but I've read online that they'll be the standard $25 of the other EE starters.  The Booster packs will only contain 6 cards, but they will all be rares from throughout the arc. (2x EE, 1x SC, 1x BTD, 1x EoW, 1x SoD)  Again, no firm MSRP, but I've read that they will be $4.99 each... so $1 or so more expensive than the typical booster, but again, it's all rares!

Overall, this will be a nice way to catch new players up into building some more consistent decks.  As an added bonus with this set, all the L5R players at my LGS have been pretty generous with our trades, so with what could be a rather large influx of rares coming into the hands of the various players, I imagine the strength of the entire group's decks will grow as a whole!

The official blerb on the main L5R page can be found HERE.

INCOMING: SHADOWRUN!

Stumbled across a bit of info, and it looks like Shadowrun may be making a return in a big way!  Sure, the RPG is always been around, but I'm not much of an RPGer and I was much more of a fan of the old card game.  That said, this is another one of those settings that I get a bit nostalgic for.  I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing what they have planned over the coming year or so.  Several things look to be coming down the pipe: a deck builder game, skirmish miniatures game, board game, video games, the whole bit!  More official news can be found HERE.

I for one am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their deck builder as well as their miniatures game.  I'll try and keep an eye out on any new info I see in the near future...

This Geek's Week...

Not a lot of gaming this week....

Tuesday

- Picked up the Honor & Treachery set for L5R.

Wednesday

- Played 2 games of L5R vs the local Crane player.  Once with my Scorpion Paragons, once with my Scorpion Magistrates, winning both.  My Paragons steamrolled over the crane rather quickly.  The 2nd game was much, much longer as it was honor vs dishonor.  I swung a couple of times, trying to hit with some honor loss, but in those attempts I either lost battles or simply bounced off provences in the end.  Eventually I  decided to sit back instead, and focus on static limited phase honor loss.  Eventually he decided to try and swing for a provence of mine, and that cost him the game.  It backfired, I won the battle and hit him with a -10 honor loss when he was already sitting at -10 before the battle.

- Played Mage Wars for the 1st time.  I really enjoyed it, and now I have to debate whether or not I want to pick it up.  Maybe after Christmas...

Thursday

- Played a bit of Skyrim.

- Took apart my Ninja Castle of Order deck.  I then took a majority of it, threw in some new stuff, and built a Towers of the Yogo deck.  Lots of peons for bowing, a bit of the elite trait thrown in.

Honor & Treachery Unboxing/Review...

Mmmm, Scorpion girls are sexy!

Well, my LGS finally got its shipment of H&T in (don't get me started on that!), and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it and start sifting through the cards!  In this thread, I'll be posting pictures of the box's contents one by one, and going through MY personal views on the ups and downs on the set.  I'll jump right in...

Imperial Fist Test Rhino..

       Here's my test rhino to see how well my yellow technique would work on a vehicle.  It also served as a way for me to test out some weathering tricks.  The model itself was put together several years ago, the Forgeworld doors came out a bit janky... hence why I'm using it as a test model!  So, I've got a test model done for both an Infantry and a Vehicle, and all-in-all I'm pretty happy with the results.  That said, I'm still trying to decide if I want to commit to painting up a ton of Imperial Fists or if I'd rather do a Flesh Tearers army...

This Geek's Week...

Played the DC Deck Building game.  Good stuff!

Monday

- Played several rounds of MWO in a 4-man lance.  I was mostly in my Commando, but I ended up building a Centurion D.  I've enjoyed the centurion in the past, but right now I am not super impressed...

Tuesday

- Worked some more on my Imperial Fist "test Rhino".

- Played several rounds of MWO in pugs.  I swapped some stuff around on my Centurion, and now it acts as a proxy Kit Fox/Uller w/ a UAC-5, ER Large Laser, and 2x SSRM 2's.  I like him a little more now, but mu Commando is still my favorite.  Highlight for the day had to be when I kept a Raven, Hunchback, and 2x Cataphracts busy chasing me for pretty much an entire game!  4 vs 1 in the lightest mech in the game, and it still took them several minutes to bring me down!  Too bad the pugs couldn't capitalize on the 7 vs 4 advantage I gave them while I kept literally 1/2 the enemy team chasing me around...

Wednesday

- Finished painting my test rhino.

- Stayed up at the gaming store till 3 am.  I played a game of x-wing, and got my butt handed to me... again!  Although I do suck at maneuvering, the dice constantly bite me in the ass.  As an example, I get 6 ties in range of an x-wing, including rerolls from Howlrunner, and yet all I managed to do was strip some shields! Maybe a point to the hull.  Next round, I lose 2 ties due to rolling "blanks" on defense, and it starts going down hill fast as I quickly lose my numbers advantage.  Next, I played 2 games of the DC Comics Deck Builder.... I really enjoyed it!  I lost the first game, but surprisingly won the second.  Next I played Marvel: Legendary, and sadly didn't enjoy it that much.  I didn't dig the semi co-op nature of the game. (it should be co-op or competitive, not a mish-mash of both imho) We played a deck with deadpool, thor, iron man, storm, gambit, and wolverine against Dr. Doom and a mish-mash of villains.  This brings me to another point, I wish the game was set up so the hero deck was comprised of all of a single team, so it would've been Avengers vs Doom or x-men vs magneto etc.  Sure you CAN play it that way, but I wish it wouldn't have to be a house rule to do so.  I think it would've been more thematic that way.  Next I played a game of L5R, using my Naga vs Crane.  My Naga is still my "Fun deck" because of its slower pace, and it proved a bit too slow.  I let the Crane player get up to like 25 honor before I started attacking.  I then took one provence pretty easily, but he managed to save the next one I attacked.  He ended up hitting 40 honor, and I went to attack all 3 of his provences.  I took 2 of the 3 provences, but he was able to send my units home at the final battle so I lost.  Finally, I sat and chatted with some of the guys at the shop about "ins and outs" of owning a gaming store, which ended up turning into a "what would we do differently" type of conversation.

Thursday

- Further tweaked my Scorpion Magistrates as well as my Scorpion Paragons.

Saturday

- Played Batman: Arkham Asylum for a couple of hours.

181st Imperial Fighter Group

In FFG's X-Wing, I'm playing as the Empire's "181st Fighter group".  Early on, they were one of the Empire's worst units... in fact, early on they were actually referred to as the "one-eighty-worst".  Which is fitting, because i completely BLOW at this game!  Later on, they would eventually rise to become one of the Empire's most elite units.  But for right now, I'm still in the "one-eighty-worst" era...

I may have a game set up for this Wednesday, and this will be the list I'm taking:

Howlrunner

5x Academy Pilots

Tempest Squadron Pilot

- 99 points

So, 7 models, my current entire Imperial Fleet.  My hope is to swarm and focus fire targets, rerolling attack dice while within range 1 of Howlrunner.  I'm going to assume that my opponent will be playing rebels, but if not, being at 99 points should let me retain initiative if he decides to play empire at a full 100 points.  That, and the only 1 pt upgrade would be "Determination" on Howlrunner, and in general my ties never seem to live long enough make use of it.

Once the Interceptor is released, I plan to play an all Tie Interceptor list, complete with "Bloodstripes" as per the 181st background.

Imperial Fist "Test Scout" model...

When it comes to Space Marines, the Imperial Fists have always been a favorite of mine.  Ever since I first read "Storm of Iron".  Several years ago I had a 1500 pt Imperial Fists list built, but my yellow process at the time was so extensive, I think I was only ever able to paint a model or two.  This is my attempt to create a "quick yellow" paint job.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out on him, and if I can come up with some similar results on the current "test rhino" I have on my desk then I may end up collecting another Fist army!

Furthermore, I've always wanted to commit to collecting a Space Marine army consisting of whole companies, and eventually an entire chapter!  If the Imperial Fists do not work out, I still have a back up plan which would keep my dream of one day owning an entire chapter still on the table.  It all comes down to how the rhino turns out...

This Geek's Week...

Just a random picture from the internetz that made me giggle...

**Despite a pretty busy week, I still managed to squeeze in a bit of gaming...

Monday

- Booted up Batman: Arkham Asylum.

-  Started painting my test model for a potential future Imperial Fists project.  The project hinges on how the model turns out... so far, so good!

Tuesday 

- Finished painting my Imperial Fist test model.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but the real test will be the test Rhino.  I'm unsure of how my yellow technique will look on a larger vehicle.  If it turns out fine, then I'll proceed with my Imperial Fists project, if not, well.... maybe Flesh Tearers!

- Tweaked all 4 of my L5R decks for this coming Saturday's L5R night.  Nothing big, just swapped out a card or two here and there.

Wednesday

- Finished the "Way of the Clans" book from Battletech.  I really enjoyed it.  Started the 1st book in the X-Wing Rogue Squadron series.

- Started painting my test rhino.  I've got a couple of layers on it, and so far I'm liking how it looks thus far.  It's kind of a wet, almost watercolor-esque, and I'm thinking may come out looking pretty unique on the table.  That is of course, unless I botch it somewhere along the way!  =p

Thursday

- Painted the tracks on my test rhino.  Then I got bored with painting and switched to MWO...

- Played a few rounds of MWO in pugs.  I mainly wanted to see what all the fuss over ECM was about.  Several games saw a ton of light mechs, all packin ECM.  My Catapult w/ 6x SRMs couldn't hit the lights to do any real damage.  Played my Catapult again, and got some decent numbers, but in the end, no numbers that I couldn't achieve in  any of Commandos.  I ended up selling all but my 3 Commandos, and started rocking things.  I don't know what it is about the Comm, but that mech just works for me.  Tempted to try about a Centurion- D but those cost 8 million C-Bills, and I've currently only got 10 mil or so... I think I'd rather hold out for a bit and see if they ever announce the Zeus mech in MWO....

- Played 2 games with my Scorpion Paragons vs Crane duelist/courtier.  I lost the first one because I got greedy and split my forces, had I not done that I *might* have been able to keep him from getting to 40 honor.  The second game I made sure not to split my forces and took one provence at a time, although he still managed to get up to 32 honor before i took his last provence.

- Ran an L5R demo for a guy who has never played a single card game before.  It seemed to go fairly well, which is good because L5R can be a pretty tricky game, and I was worried if I would be able to teach a new player.  I played the Scorpion clan for both games, and after the 1st demo game he ended up picking up a Unicorn starter!  I played one more game using the Scorpion demo deck vs his new Unicorn starter.  I took it pretty easy on him both games, letting each of us get down to 1 or 2 provences, and he ended up winning the second one.  All in all, it seemed like he enjoyed the game which is the most important thing.  Maybe we'll see him again this Saturday!

Friday

- Built a Naga deck for L5R, just for fun.  Made a couple of slight tweaks to my Scorpion Magistrates, which is my favorite deck thus far.

Saturday

- Played several L5R games.  First with my Naga vs Mantis Magistrates, and lost.  Then with my Paragons vs Mantis Naval and won.  Played a game with an old friend, and old veteran to the game, after giving him a refresher course.  That game he played my Crab Berzerkers while I used my Naga, and the berserkers just rolled right over me! We then played again, with him using the Spider demo deck while I used the Scorpion demo deck, and he rolled over me again!  I then played my Naga deck vs the new Unicorn player from a few days ago.  He had a much better grasp of the game now, and quickly brought me down to my last provence with his Cavalry.  He mounted one large, final offensive that backfired.  From there, I was able to to turn the game around, taking a provence a turn, while killing off anyone he used for defense.  My last game of the night was against my old friend, with him using my berserkers again, and this time I used my Scorpion magistrates.  He took one of my provences, but i knocked him down to -11 honor in the process. His next attack phase, he swung for 2 provences. I repelled his attacks at both and bumped him down to -20 honor, sealing the game.  I also received a ton of cards off my trade list, so I'll have plenty of tweaking to do too....

Honor and Treachery

A week or so ago AEG announced  their "Learn to Play set" for the Emperor Arc, "Honor and Treachery",  and I could not be more excited!  Not only because despite playing for several months now, I still consider myself a new player, but because it is primarily a Phoenix/Scorpion set, with one of my favorite Scorpions, our Champion, Bayushi Nitoshi taking a key role in the story. 

This Geek's Week...

Skyrim, Skyrim, and more Skyrim!

 Tuesday

- Started my character up on Skyrim.  I can't explain why, but so far the Argonians are my favorite race in the game.  I imagine when Elder Scrolls Online drops, a majority of the people will be playing as the "Ebonpact", which is the Nords, Dark Elves, and Argonians.  Unless I can get more into either the High Elves or the Wood Elves, I may just have to suck it up and accept that I'll be a part of an "over populated" faction.

- Played several hours worth of MWO, entirely in my Commando 2-D.  Got into lances with other members of HouseSteiner.com and they figured out a janky way to try and get full 8 man groups going, as a patch or two ago MWO decided to limit groups to a max of 4 despite the fact that matches are 8v8.  A lot of C-Bills were made, and I managed to add 2 more Atlas' to my kill tally as well!

Wednesday 

- Been Playing Skyrim, and suffice to say, I still have "Dragon Age Syndrom".  What is DAS you ask? Well in Dragon Age, I spent so many hours just rerolling characters and/or playing through their initial stories.  I just kept doing it, until I finally settled down on character.  So far, Skyrim has been the same for me.  I keep rerolling, and trying new races, only to come to the conclusion that I still like the Argonians the best.  I've tried High Elf, Wood Elves, and the Khajiit to see if I could possibly get into the races in the "Dominion" for ESO, but they all seem to lack the "cool" or the "it" factor for me that the Argonians poses!

Thursday

- More Skyrim.

- Played 3 games of L5R tonight at the shop.  I played my Scorpion Ninja, Magistrates, and my Crab Berserkers vs a new Crane player.  I won each game, but the Crane player did have some interesting stuff take place in each game.  1st game, my Ninjas kept bouncing off provences till I was finally able to swarm.  2nd game he ran high/fast enough honor that I feared my Magistrates might have stalled out till Nitoshi hit play and 1 or 2 decisive battles started the Dishonor really rolling.  Finally, he wanted to play vs my Berserkers.  I didn't get to attack until the start of turn 3, even after Border Keep uses and he actually held me off for my 1st 2 attacks with some good combos.  However, in the end, the strength 7 berserkers started to swarm.  I also gave him a ton of cards and helped him start to flesh out a theme for his Crane deck. between the last Scorpion game and the one vs my Crab.  Hopefully he'll stick with it, as he's on the right track once he gets more of the cards he needs.  

Friday

- More Skyrim today.  I really love that game!

- The Forgotten Legacy set I had pre-ordered arrived today!  I was finally able to build a Scorpion Paragon deck from it, but I'm still missing a few things.  I also tweaked my Magistrates and my Ninja decks with a few cards from the FL set as well.

Netrunner Decklist: Weyland Consortium - Shareholder Deck

Moving upwards by bringing you down...

I call this my "Shareholder" deck due to the fact that it has a pretty even spread of cards between the other Corps, Weyland has been buying stocks!  Otherwise, it's a simple "Tag N Bag" deck that has worked EXTREMELY well for me thus far.  Play it safe till I get 2x Scorch Earth in hand or 1 and an archived memories to pull it back for a second use.  Once I have the cards needed for the kill, I like to sit on a ready-to-be-scored Posted Bounty for a turn, then at the start of the next turn score it to make sure I have sufficient clicks to go for the kill.  Easy, basic, and pretty straightforward...